Burial Ground National Monument by Glenn Gladney

Professor Mack's lecture expanded my knowledge on the life of early African slaves within colonial America. His talk touched upon the fact that the captive African slaves still practiced traditions and customs from their homeland. One important aspect still continued was African burial rites. The unearthing of graves within New York's African Burial Ground showed various relics and items buried with the dead. Also Professor Mack pointed out that examination of the teeth and bones of the dead gave clues to their daily lives. The pattern of teeth filing revealed the tribe, age, and origin of the many buried. The professor pointed out that young women were typically assigned to hard labor that damaged their muscle tissue and skeleton. The routine lifting of a hundred pounds took a toll on many and made me appreciate the fact that I do not work in hard labor. Overall his presentation introduced me to a depth of early African slaves that is not usually discussed. One instance is that many Africans did not view themselves as slaves or as "property" but as being held captive in a new land. This shows the resilience and mental state that the early Africans arrived with to the colonies.


My overall impression of the project is positive. I believe the involvement of Howard University was essential in leading the research on the New York African Burial Ground. I believe this institution was chosen because of its vast resources and knowledgeable staff that could properly examine the remains. I do not believe other institutions could have taken the quality time and safety in analyzing our ancestors' remains. Though it is an unfortunate situation surrounding the African Burial Ground, it is encouraging to know that care was taken to preserve the dignity of the dead. The symbolism of unity that the monument stands for inspires to me to continue the University's legacy in pursuing and transforming academic knowledge that will benefit the community.

Convocation Lecture by Glenn Gladney

On September 23, Michael L. Lomax was the guest speaker for Howard University's 144th Opening Convocation. As President of UNCF (United Negro College Fund) he stressed his goal to make college an affordable experience for minorities seeking higher education. Dr. Lomax expressed his concern for the number of bright minorities seeking options outside of HBCUs. He asserted that institutions such as Howard University need to make themselves more attractive and competitive for a better quality of student. In addition he believes Howard University should seek to acquire the best faculty and staff in order to improve its quality of education.

Dr. Lomax also challenged alumni and students to give back to their alma mater. He believes that investment from past generations is essential if HBCUs are to progress forward. According to the orator, only 11 percent of past graduates donate funds to Howard University. I find this to be a surprising statistic. I agree that HBCUs need to be come more attractive to students if they are to compete with other schools. One approach could be to offer greater scholarships. However this relates back to Dr. Lomax's point that alumni do not give back which hinders the amount of funding available. Overall I believed his presentation to be insightful on the current state of HBCUs.

Convocation

I enjoyed convocation very much. Doctor Lomax mad some very interesting and valid facts and points. When he said that HBCU's have the highest graduation percentage of African Americans more than any other college, I found that to be very interesting and I loved hearing that being that I am in an HBCU, it made me very proud. The fact that Alumni don't contribute to their school's as much as they should disappoints me because college is one of the major points of your life, in some cases it makes you who you are today, so for you to graduate and not show your appreciation by not giving back is selfish and unappreciative. "Howard was there for you, now Howard needs you"- Dr. Lomax. Dr. Lomax was very pro-student which i really liked. He said a student should be treated as a "customer", meaning we should be given the best service possible or we will just take our business elsewhere. I don't think there was a better way to say that. I also enjoyed when he spoke about education with minorities specifically blacks and latinos. He said "latinos and blacks are seen as the muscle and not the brain of education", and this is very true. We are looked down a lot when it comes to education, and Caucasians are seen as the brain, the one's with all the "knowledge". I personally think latinos and blacks just need more support, then this high percentage of graduates in American will increase.

Afican Burial Ground: Never Forgetting Those Before Us

Dr. Mack’s presentation on the African Burial Ground was something I had never seen or heard of before. Although I am from NY I never knew this existed. It’s sad that this isn’t better known to everyone but I’m glad I had a chance to learn about it and will get to see it live.  I feel that it is important for us to learn about our history and take pride in knowing all that we can.  I still don’t know how I feel about this burial ground being dug up in the first place because it seems disrespectful. They wouldn’t go into any cemetery and just start digging out the bodies so why would you do it to this site?

Professor Mack’s presentation was pretty good but I felt that he could have given us more than just pictures to look at. He didn’t have much depth to the presentation although it was nice that he took things slower than other speakers have before. Overall the lecture was interesting and taught me many new things. I feel that Howard was chosen to participate because of our reputation and the level of scholars we have working here. People know that we would be respectful and very interested in learning more about the burial site and would want to contribute all that we can to help. The skills professors and others on campus possess are incredible and are the exact reasons we are among the top HBCUs.

Nsibidi- love and unity and ancient idiographic writing system

Gye Nyame- this is the most widely recognized and powerful symbol used by the Ugon? people. It means “except God.”

Tanit- represents the early African Muslims who have been here since the early 1600s and the faith they brought to our world.

Hye Won Hye- imperishability and endurance. It means “burn? You will not burn.”

Legba- guardian of the crossroads. It is one of the gods of the system.

Digging up the past

Before Professor Mack even began this lecture, I was a little disappointed in myself because I am from New York, Brooklyn to be exact, and I knew nothing about this African Burial ground so I was excited that we were going to be taking a trip there. When he talked about people protesting about the digging of the burial ground, I understood their frustration because these people are digging up the past, a sacred ground, but I also understood why they were digging it up. When you go into the past, it provides a lot of unknown information for the present that we never even known so I appreciated this project more than rebelling against it. If i were to visit this exhibit in october, which I will, I'm sure I will learn a lot about our ancestors and the way they were treated just by exhibiting their remains. Looking at someone's skeletel structure tells us a lot about that person and time period than a lot may realize. When we looked at the women's skeleton, we saw that their skull was cracked and this indicated that they carried a lot of heavy things on their head. Their teeth are filed which also gives us more valid information. The fact that these people were buried with their babies and others as well, shows that they were probably buried with their families or just random people. This lecture gave me a lot of information I didn't have before and I can't wait to go to New York and find out even more.

Convocation....Celebrating 144 Years of Success

Dr. Michael Lomax’s speech during Convocation showed how passionate he was about his position as President of the United Negro College Fund. He made very relevant and eye opening points through his use of statistics and facts about African Americans schooling. My favorite point was when he said “Students should be treated as customers because they matter and they can easily take their business elsewhere.” This is so correct and he used this to explain how some schools are losing focus on what is truly important and why they exist in the first place. They must remember that students hold a larger amount of power than they think so they should strive to make things suitable for us and keep things equal and professional at all times. There is nothing worse than going off to college where you should experience “the best four years of your life” and end up being treated unfairly due to ethnicity, religion, gender, etc., and wanting nothing more than to leave that institution.

Dr. Lomax mentioned many statistics about African Americans and our low rates of males at graduations but yet the high rates of unemployment. Only 30-35% of the graduating classes at many HBCUs are comprised of males. He expressed how crucial it is for people to start making an effort to help black males get in and stay in school. Too many schools are focused on what they have done in the past and how many people they started with but don’t worry about how many they lose. Dr. Lomax said “it’s not about what you use to do; it’s about what you are doing now and for the future.” There is nothing further from the truth; you cannot stay stuck in the past and talk about how good you use to be. That is not relevant to what you are doing now and it will not help keep people interested in your institution for too long.

Overall I felt proud to attend the Convocation and celebrate 144 years of Howard University. I hold this school to such a high standard and I love hearing about its accomplishments and what we are doing to help others. I wouldn’t trade Howard for anything.

More Than Dirt & Bones: A People Unearthed

I found this lecture both informative and interesting. I think that I may have liked this lecture more than the previous ones because this was a lecture about than just concepts. The site and the bones/artifacts are tangible. I can go see them so this lecture was easier to wrap my head around. Although I live in NYC, I had never even heard of this burial site until the first week of freshman seminar. Initially I thought that it would be just several skeletons a few feet apart. I did not realize that this would include the skeletons of babies or such things as shells worn by people. I also never realized just how much it is possible to find out from bones. I was really fascinated when Dr.Mack spoke of the woman who's muscles had torn and the woman who was shot and took some time to die. This reminds me of when people speak of the thousands that lost their lives on 9/11. One may feel sadness but it is not until faces and individual tales are put to the story that one understands the full magnitude of the circumstance. As silly as it may sound, I always thought of working in the fields as unbelievably hard work but I never thought of it as physically breaking the body down one muscle and limb at a time.

I am not completely certain that I understand the podcasts but what I think they are trying to emphasize is the importance of the burial ground to not just Africans. Several faiths and cultures are connected by way of the site. In my opinion, Howard University was chosen because it is an HBCU with scholars who have the capacity,tools,connections, and legacy to carry out the necessary research. Being that Howard is an HBCU, taking part in this project would mean that the importance and appreciation for the African burial ground would not be lost; it would be magnified. I am proud of HU's contributions.